Ayala supporters have 'her back'

Gov. Rick Scott stripped the newly elected prosecutor of 23 death-penalty cases after Ayala announced she would not seek capital punishment during her time in office.

By Dara Kam and Lloyd Dunkelberger / The News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSEE — A coalition of national left-leaning groups — including the Advancement Project, Color of Change and Dream Defenders — are painting Central Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala as an embattled civil-rights and criminal-justice reformer.

Lawyers for the organizations, which also include the Florida Immigrant Coalition and Florida branches of the NAACP and the Service Employees International Union, filed a friend-of-the-court brief Thursday in Ayala's Florida Supreme Court lawsuit against Gov. Rick Scott.

Scott stripped the newly elected prosecutor of 23 death-penalty cases after Ayala announced she would not seek capital punishment during her time in office, including in the high-profile case of accused Orlando cop-killer Markeith Loyd. The governor assigned the cases to Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Brad King.

Ayala — Florida's first black elected state attorney — is challenging Scott's legal authority to remove her from the cases, arguing that prosecutors have broad discretion over charging decisions.

But the state and national groups contend that Scott's treatment of Ayala is a reflection of Florida's ugly history of discrimination against blacks in elections as well as in the criminal justice system.

"This has become an all-out attack from the Florida GOP on black voters, black communities and black leadership," Color of Change Executive Director Rashad Robinson, whose group backed Ayala's campaign last year, told reporters during a conference call Thursday prior to the filing of the friend-of-the-court brief.

In the 27-page court document, the group's lawyers argued that Scott's treatment of Ayala, who ousted incumbent State Attorney Jeff Ashton in an August primary, thwarted the will of the voters in her 9th Judicial Circuit region — "particularly black voters" — who supported changes to the criminal justice system by electing the "upstart reformer."

"While political analysts did not expect her to prevail, her reformist message was unsurprising given the political climate and Florida's recent embroilments with criminal justice issues," the lawyers wrote. "This includes the prosecution of several high profile legal cases that highlighted racial disparities in the state's criminal justice system; clear data on the ongoing and disparate targeting of black Floridians for arrest and incarceration; and even the invalidation of the state's death penalty law last year."

The lawyers noted that voters also ousted Northeast Florida State Attorney Angela Corey, who was in charge of prosecuting high-profile cases involving the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis.

The brief highlights the 2012 death of Martin — an unarmed black teenager who was shot and killed in Sanford by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman — as the impetus for “communities of color” in Florida to pursue criminal justice reforms.

During the telephone call, representatives of the groups blasted Scott for his actions and also pointed the finger at the Republican-led Legislature, which last week proposed cutting $1.3 million from Ayala's budget.

The Service Employees International Union has about 3,000 members in the Orange and Osceola County areas, the union's state president Monica Russo said, including many "black and brown women."

Many of the women "sleep with one eye open at night listening for footsteps of their sons and daughters to come home in one piece," she said, adding that the union members in the 9th Judicial Circuit "love and revere" Ayala.

"We've got her back, and we're ready to stand in support of our sister and whatever needs to be done," she said.